Monday, 30 September 2013

Stained Glass Sunflowers

You may recall my post on 20th June where I shared a photo of the fabrics I had chosen for a new project, a birthday present for my sister's birthday. A BIG birthday calls for a special present and as sunflowers always remind me of my sister, Mrs J, I sought out a pattern for a quilted wall hanging with sunflowers on it. I was delighted when I found Nikki Tervo's 'Sunny Window Quilt' pattern which she markets under her Brandy Gully brand.

After receiving the pattern and buying the appropriate fabrics, I spent several weeks frantically creating whenever Miss M was sleeping and my dear husband was away. I was on a mission to complete it, not only before Mrs J's birthday party but before I returned to full time work. The pressure was on!

Each of the numbered pattern pieces were traced onto Vliesofix, fused to the correct fabric, then cut out and individually fused to the full pattern traced onto calico. Unfortunately the way the instructions were worded meant that my image is a mirror image to that on the pattern but, after some initial frustration, I was happy with it.

Sky, stems and leaves.

Gorgeous bright petals

Then I added the fusible bias binding to make the 'stained glass' effect. I don't normally like ironing but I happily ironed away for hours while watching telly. The bias binding was expensive but quite easy to work with. It was exciting watching the individual components of the image start to stand out.

Outlining the elements

Once the bias binding was all in place I created my quilt sandwich. The floor was quite sticky from the basting spray for a while, even though I put down lots of newspaper!

The quilt sandwich

Then it was time to quilt. This was a quilt-as-you-go project so as I secured the bias binding in place with stitching I was also doing the quilting. I had to stitch along both edges of each piece of bias binding. That was quite a challenge using my domestic sewing machine. Stitching down the first side of each strip was relatively easy but when I did the other side the majority of the quilt was quite often rolled up in the throat of my machine. Manoeuvering the quilt along the curved shapes was very tricky at times and the bias binding that wasn't stitched down quite often lifted and had to be re-fused. Eventually I completed it though and I was pretty happy with the result.

Next came the borders and binding, and the quilt was ready to be wrapped up. I completed it on time and was a very happy camper! I was also very excited to have completed my first proper quilt, albeit a wall hanging, and excitedly showed it off to my friends at the WA Quilters Association sewing day. I even made the WAQA blog that day :).

Completed quilt

Mrs J was very happy with her present and can't wait to hang it on her bedroom wall, much to my delight. Now I just need to work out how to add hanging sleeves that will make the hanging rod invisible behind the quilt.

Mrs J and I holding her wall hanging

Another project to add to my completed list. Yay!

And speaking of completed projects, to all those lovely people who left me kind messages about my owl cushion I'm embarrassed to say that I forgot to put the buttons on the eyes. If it hadn't been for my wonderful husband (not so) subtley asking me where the eyes were I probably would have sent it off incomplete. I must say though, it does look much better with the eyes on! Here is the final, final completed project...

'A Family of Owls' cushion

Alright, time for an early night as Miss M hasn't been sleeping too well the last couple of nights. I hope you all had a great weekend of stitching and have a wonderful week ahead.

Thanks Wendy. I'm looking forward to my next project - an Aussie Christmas by McKenna Ryan. But then, there are so many UFO's that I desperately want to finish too. Hard to know where to start! Have a great weekend xx